California Highway Patrol authorities issued the Silver Alert at 11:30 p.m. Monday for Kenneth Mitchell, 79, last seen that morning at his residence in Elk Grove. Mitchell was known to suffer from dementia and was thought to be driving a white Lincoln two door sedan en route to either Pittsburg or San Ramon.

Willits police received a call from Terry White an attendant at Flyers Gas Station with concerns about a disoriented elderly driver who seemed to think he was in the Bay Area and was trying to get over the bridge to Berkeley. White noticed when the man left Flyers he kept circling the area.

Willits police had received the silver alert about Mitchell's disappearance moments before and conducted a short search, locating Mitchell at the Safeway gas station.

"Thanks to Terry White, the Silver Alert System and law enforcement, the Mitchell family's 11 hour ordeal came to a happy ending," says Willits police Sgt. Tim Ellis.

Mitchell's family was contacted and drove the 4 hours to Willits to pick him up.

The Silver Alert system became operational in California effective January 1. It is modeled on the successful Amber Alert system for missing children. The Silver Alert was designed to quickly alert law enforcement and the public to help locate missing seniors with cognitive disorders.

The new alert requires persons be 65 years or older, the local law enforcement agency has conducted a thorough area search, that the person is missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances, that law enforcement believes the person is potentially in danger and that there is sufficient information available to enlist the publics help in locating the person. The Silver Alert program allows law enforcement to avoid the 48 hour waiting period typically associated with missing person reports.

The new alert system has already been credited with helping safely reunite several missing persons with their families.